The highway at Florence will be closed the first week of May.

Joe Palic and Doug Lind of Kansas Department of Transportation told Peabody City Council Monday evening that the highway will be closed from Newton to Elmdale.

Approaches to the roundabout near Florence on U.S.-50 and U.S.-77 have suffered structural failure and need to be replaced. Palic said KDOT plans to begin work the first week in May, weather permitting.

“We will run work crews 24 hours a day for a week,” he said. “We hope to start the project at 7 a.m. Monday and work straight through until Sunday evening.”

Palic said local traffic will be able to get to Florence using a combination of county roads and state and federal highways, but cross-country truck traffic will be detoured around U.S.-50 from Newton to Elmdale.

The last time U.S.-50 was repaired in 2004, the highway was not closed but traffic was stopped. During that summer, numerous fatal accidents occurred.